Two days after the Pac-12 took its last competitive breath, the conference lost its soul.
Bill Walton passed away on Monday after 71 years of a life like no other before.
The cause: cancer.
Unspoken: a broken heart.
Walton was perhaps the best player in college basketball history, winning two NCAA titles with UCLA and two more within the NBA (with Portland and Boston) and becoming a natural selection for the Hall of Fame.
He was the world's biggest Grateful Dead fan, an avid cyclist, a passionate environmentalist, an avid reader and a legendary sports reporter.
He was as good as he was silly, as authentic as he was colourful, as cheerful as he was talkative.
Oh, he could talk.
My first conversation with Walton years ago was by phone. I dialed the number, he answered, I introduced myself, he thanked me for calling, after which we talked for 40 minutes straight – I didn't say a word – a couple of surreal range of topics.
The entertainment on the gates of heaven just reached a brand new level, folks.
In addition, Walton was probably the most passionate and tireless advocate of his beloved Conference of Champions.
Using his platform on ESPN and the Pac-12 Networks, Walton became the face and voice of the Pac-12 – a favourite of conference leadership and campus officials alike.
For years, a keenness for Walton was the one thing former Commissioner Larry Scott and his marginalized athletic directors had in common.
He loved interacting with fans, was genuinely excited about the athletes and continually praised the standard of the sport, even when the standards contradicted his reality.
It made sense: The UCLA graduate all the time credited the Pac-12 with “his life.”
When UCLA and USC announced in the summertime of 2022 that they would depart the Pac-12 and join the Big Ten, Walton was devastated.
He remained silent for months after which finally wrote “UCLA's Wrong Turn,” a poetic lament that he presented as a written statement:
Later within the statement he wrote:
Walton continued to host for ESPN and the Pac-12 Networks, mixing life stories with game evaluation as only he could. But the heartache remained.
His death on Monday, first announced by the NBA, got here two days after the last sporting competition under the Pac-12 flag: Arizona's victory over USC within the baseball tournament.
We cannot say whether Walton was aware of the incident.
He died two months before the Pac-12 as we realize it was to disband. On August 2, the departing schools will join their recent leagues.
The Pac-12 will remain an official conference for no less than two years, as Washington State and Oregon State football teams compete during a grace period granted by the NCAA.
Beyond that, no one knows.
But one thing is definite: Walton lived for 26,136 days, and the Pac-12 existed for each single one in every of them.
It was the one conference that the champion of the “Conference of Champions” has ever experienced.
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